


D+

by nowjkjkjklololol



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-26
Updated: 2019-12-26
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:21:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21973489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nowjkjkjklololol/pseuds/nowjkjkjklololol
Summary: Roxas gets an unsatisfactory grade and takes it up with his TA, Axel.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	D+

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CatzRko0L](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CatzRko0L/gifts).



> My Christmas gift for my amazing wonderful reader CatzRko0L 🥰❤️ Their prompt that I ran with.

D+

Roxas stared at the abhorrent letter, written in what was probably the largest red marker he had ever seen, until his vision began to blur. There’s no way it was THAT bad. He’d been glaring at the papers since they had been passed back at the end of his class almost forty minutes ago, and finally crumpled the pages into his face to avoid looking at the offensive letter any longer. Deep breath in, deep breath out, which forced him to register the smell. Another sniff and an offended look at the paper; it was cherry scented marker.

Roxas released an agressive sigh as he crushed the story between his hands. He didn't work his ass off last year earning a free ride into the pre-med program, just to have some first year creative writing elective ruin all of his plans not one month into the first semester. His scholarship was forfeit if he didn't maintain an A- average.

Reaching for his cellphone, Roxas pulled up the information for his TA's office hours; still twenty minutes left. If he hurried, maybe he could fight the TA on his grade.

Roxas slung one of his backpack straps onto his shoulder and set off across campus, rubbing his face with a groan. He really regretted skipping all four of the workshops that the TA, Axel whateverhislastnamewas, had run, but he was determined to argue with him about the merit of his story anyways. This was a first-year elective! If he’d known this was how they were going to grade, he would have signed up for pottery.

The English buildings were all relatively close together, but of course it was his luck that the building in which the offices were located was as far away from his last class as possible, and by the time he made it to the correct office, there were only twelve minutes left. At the door he was looking for, a tall redhead was closing and beginning to lock it behind himself. Roxas recognized the man’s fiery red hair from his usual view of it down in the front row of the lecture hall.

“Wait,” Roxas called, hurrying the last few feet to his TA’s side. “The syllabus says you’ve still got hours open until five. Can I talk to you for a minute?” Axel looked over his shoulder at him, surprise warring with an impatient look in his bright green eyes. Roxas was thrown for a moment; had he ever really looked at his TA before? The man was HOT, with long limbs and long spikes of hair and a height that forced Roxas to tilt his head back to meet his gaze.

“Well,” Axel hesitated, turning partially to Roxas but leaving his hand on the doorknob, “no one had come this afternoon and I was hoping to get out of here a little-“ 

“PLEASE,” implored the shorter blonde, frowning slightly at the redhead. “It’s important. And I made it here in time.” Another pause as the TA chewed his lower lip in thought, and the action drew Roxas’s eyes down to look at his mouth, which was a bad move on his part as his mind began to follow a train of thought that was wholly unhelpful to maintaining his frustration at the TA attempting to duck out early.

“Can we walk and talk?” Axel finally asked, giving Roxas a ridiculous puppy-dog look. “I’d owe you.” Roxas huffed in annoyance, but nodded his head. The guy was probably going to be more flexible if he was, too. With a grateful smile, the taller man locked the door and took his keys, then began leading Roxas down the hall. “Thanks, really,” Axel said as they went. “Now what can I do for you?” Roxas hurriedly tried to straighten out his story before he passed it over to the redhead. The man glanced at it for a moment before they reached an elevator at the end of the hall, at which point he handed it back and hit the call button. “I remember reading this one. What’s the problem?” Roxas shot the man a dirty look. It wasn’t that bad!

“I don’t agree with your grade. I feel like it met the assignment requirements. It’s to length, it has more than the required word amount, it has a beginning, middle, and end. Honestly, this class is just an elective for me. I’m not going to be pursuing writing, especially not story writing, and this grade will tank my class average and lose me my scholarship. Can we go over this and maybe improve my grade?” Axel nodded along as he spoke, and then the elevator opened up and they stepped on together. Roxas was fuming, still worked up over what he’d just told the TA, and the redhead’s reply made his jaw drop with its bluntness.

“I’m sorry, uh,” the man leaned over and read his name off the papers he’d just returned to the shorter man, “Roxas. I love to read, I love writing, and the short story assignment is both my favorite and the one I’m most critical about. I read your story. I wanted to love it. Unfortunately, even if you reworked it to fix the small grammatical or syntactical errors, it wouldn’t get higher than a C. It’s the content that killed it for me.” The elevator dinged open right when Roxas lost his cool.

“It’s not that bad!” he said too loudly, and people in the hallway threw them looks that Roxas ignored. He did lower his voice to a strained growl, however. “My writing itself should be what this is graded on! It’s a writing class!” The taller man gave a small, serene smile that made Roxas want to strangle him.

“Yes, but it’s a CREATIVE writing class, and that’s what you’re lacking here. It was horribly predictable, and it didn’t draw me in. You didn’t bring your story to life, you didn’t make me feel anything for your characters except for maybe some sympathy. And the plot has been done to death.” Roxas felt himself burn with fury at the criticism. He’d come up with the damn story, he’d written the damn story, he invested time and effort and thought into the story. What the hell was this guy looking for? Axel held the door open for him so they could exit the building, and Roxas stomped out before whirling back to face the man.

“That’s so objective! I could give it to someone else and they could love it, how can you say that so definitively?” he demanded, and Axel gave him a thoughtful look.

“Who was your favorite character?” Axel asked him thoughtfully, and it threw Roxas off his tirade; he hadn’t expected that.

“Uh,” he stammered, trying to come up with an answer. “I mean, probably Ben? He’s the main character, everything revolves around him.” Axel snorted at his answer, further irritating the defensive blonde.

“Sure, but what do you like about him?” the TA prompted, and Roxas had no answer. His scowl deepened and he ground his teeth together.

“I don’t know, that’s super objective too!” he snarled, and the redhead laughed lightly as they made their way across campus.

“Then what would your hypothetical reader who loves your story so much like about him? Is he funny? Relatable? Is there a specific point in the story where the reader feels deeply for him or his experiences?” Every question the redhead threw out struck him like a blow. He winced, knowing the answer to everything was a resounding ‘no.’ Still, he couldn’t give up.

“Okay, look, I get it fell flat. But I CAN’T get a D. Can I rework it for you?” Axel laughed again as they drew nearer to the staff and faculty parking. 

“The plot was the same thing! What part of your story was so compelling that the reader felt they HAD to find out what happens next?” The blonde groaned, knowing again that there was no good answer.

“What can I do?” he beseeched, and the redhead hesitated as they approached a beat-up maroon sedan. “If I take the letter grade drop in this class, I’ll lose my scholarship, and I can’t accept that this ONE PAPER could ruin my entire future.” Axel bit his lip attractively again, and Roxas threw caution to the wind, offering him huge puppy-dog eyes of his own. “Please.” The TA groaned, leaning back against his car and indirectly away from the blonde.

“Okay, quit it with that, you’re cute enough without the face.” He rubbed his face thoughtfully as his words sunk in for the blonde; had his TA just called him cute? He lost the thought immediately as Axel’s gaze snapped to his. “Okay, you’ve got two choices here. Either you take your paper and your complaint to the professor and the department head and argue against my grading, which I will assist you with but will also force me to make a case against you in my defense. If that happens, I’ll also have to point out that I’ve never seen you outside of class in a workshop or in my office hours. Or...we make a deal.” Roxas had paled when the man had mentioned making a case in defense of the grade, and mentally tripped over himself to agree before he’d thought about what he could’ve opening himself up for.

“Whatever, I’ll do it,” he answered desperately, and the look his TA gave him sent a shiver down his spine and his mind right back to the gutter. The smirk on the man’s lips was one of wicked amusement; Roxas blushed as he replayed their exchange in his mind. When Axel spoke, however, it was still completely professional.

“Write me something I enjoy reading. Write me something I NEED to finish. Something that I can’t put down. Same guidelines for length and all that. What day is it, Wednesday? If you can get me something by this time Friday, I’ll grade you on that instead. If not, see option one.” Axel tugged his car door open and began to duck inside, but Roxas caught his door before he closed it.

“Thank you. For giving me the chance. I appreciate it,” Roxas said earnestly, meeting the TA’s eyes again, but this time with the height advantage. Their proximity and positioning suddenly hit the blonde, and he stepped back quickly with an embarrassed wave. Axel gave him another grin, this time accompanied by a little wink and a two-fingered salute, before backing out and driving away. Roxas stared after the car, mind swirling around between gratitude, thoughts of how hot his TA was, panic about his task, and other similar topics. He finally settled on one large, ominous certainty, though.

He was totally fucked.

——-

“Ohmygod,” Olette was overcome with giggles, pale cheeks stained pink from the alcohol she’d consumed. Roxas had immediately sent his group chat between her, Hayner, Pence a desperate plea for a group brainstorming session at their favorite bar. The place was named The Usual Spot and it was an accurate description as far as their group gatherings were concerned; it was well-known across campus that they never carded paying customers. As the night had worn on and alcohol was consumed, however, the helpful brainstorming had grown progressively sillier and more ridiculous; they pressed on out of drunken stubbornness simply because no really appealing idea had come forth. Olette caught her breath and continued between residual chuckles. “Oh. God. What if you wrote him porn?” His jaw dropped, and next to him Hayner mirrored his expression. Pence, however, snorted and laughed along with the brunette girl.

“What the fuck, Olette,” Hayner grimaced, recovering himself first. “Roxas said his teacher was hot, not that he was gonna bang him.” Roxas blushed deeply, regretting sharing that detail, and avoided all of them by focusing on downing the rest of his glass’s contents. Pence, on the other hand, gave him a serious look.

“She might have a point though. My mom used to read romance novels all the time when I was growing up and I read one once to check it out and it was totally porn.” Olette let loose another wave of hysterical laughter, and Hayner shook his head.

“No way dude. Isn’t there some sort of rule against propositioning your teacher?” Olette recovered herself before Roxas could speak.

“It’s his TA, not his professor, I think it’s okay. Besides, he wouldn’t be proposing they do anything. He’d just be writing something juicy that would get the guy involved in the story.” Hayner stuck out his tongue before finishing his drink as well, but the gears in Roxas’s hazy brain began to turn. Sex sells and all that. It would be hard to resist reading to the end if it were a story about him. Besides, the guy had called him ‘cute’...in his inebriation, Roxas decided that he was sure this would be a good idea.

“Olette, you win. One more round of shots before I head off to write this shit,” the short blonde hummed, raising a hand to flag down their waitress. Shots were purchased, the group took them together, and then Roxas left amidst wishes of good luck to walk the two blocks to his apartment. Once he’d made it inside, the blonde quickly booted up his laptop and began furiously typing out a new story. This would keep the stupidly attractive TA reading, that was for sure. Even if Roxas had misinterpreted Axel’s comment, what person wouldn’t at least check out something like that if they were one of the characters? Roxas kept at it until he finally passed out right where he was, drooling drunkenly on his keyboard as he snored.

——

Roxas woke with a pounding head, a mostly-finished rough draft, and a deep-set panic over the whole thing. In the light of day, he realized that this was an absolutely terrible idea. That he’d invested one of only two nights working on. He’d written a lot before he’d fallen asleep, and was far enough now that he could finish and rework it to make a decent story in the time he had left, but the content was explicit at best and VERY easily could just add to Axel’s case against him rather than save his grade. On the other hand, he still had no better ideas, and even if he DID and he started on it today, it would only give him one night and some of a day to completely write and edit a new story from scratch; he’d end up handing over something that seemed half-assed and hurried. At least what drunken Roxas had written was...gripping. The blonde swallowed hard, barely remembering coming up with the words he was reading. It actually wasn’t bad. It was attention-grabbing if nothing else. And maybe it was because they had real physical counterparts, but the characters definitely felt more vivid. It was a HUGE risk on his part, though, he reminded himself even as he corrected a few typos. He needed another opinion, and maybe some help.

“This is all your fault, Olette,” Roxas grumped at the brunette when she answered his call, “and I need you to help me fix it.” A gentle chuckle came through the phone lines before the girl spoke.

“What’s my fault, now?” she asked innocently, and Roxas growled.

“I went home and wrote something that definitely should not be viewed by younger audiences and now it’s too late for me to start over. I need you to look over this and help me make it airtight.” 

“Alright, I’ve got some time before class,” Olette mused after a small pause. “Send it to me and I’ll see what we’re working with.” Roxas hurried to thank his friend and hung up so he could send her the document, then went to make himself some coffee before sitting back in front of his laptop. He had some time of his own before he needed to get ready to head out to his own classes, so he began rereading and fixing typos and small grammatical mistakes. By the time Olette called back, he was writing out more of the ending.

“Am I screwed?” Roxas asked in lieu of a greeting when he answered, and Olette laughed.

“Actually, I don’t think so. You’re weirdly good at this, that was pretty hot. Even if I’m not really into guy on guy as much.” Roxas felt all the blood in his body rush to his face, but damn it, it was her idea in the first place. “I’ll send you my edits, and a few suggestions, but I think you did a good job. I know I wanna see how it ends,” she teased, and Roxas grumbled.

“Okay, send them my way and I’ll send you another draft after I finish it and rework the first part.” They disconnected, and then Roxas realized the time and rushed to get in the shower so he could get to his first class. Sitting through them was almost painful, and more than once Roxas had to stop himself when he realized he was tapping on his desk impatiently with the end of his pen. Knowing so much rode on his story, which in itself was a huge risk, made Roxas’s anxiety wholly unmanageable as he was forced to wait out the day until he could get back home and work on it. He had a thirty minute break between classes around lunchtime that he spent looking over the edits Olette had sent him, and when he was finally released from his last lecture, Roxas was out the door before the professor had finished wishing the class a nice evening.

——-

Olette came over with a pizza that evening, and Roxas had a case of beer waiting for them in the fridge. He’d written his ending and reworked the first part with the help of her edits, and Olette and he were now finishing up reworking the ending as well as their junk food and alcohol binge.

“I don’t know if you want to use the word ‘rubbed’ there,” she said, pointing to the place on Roxas’s computer screen as they reread the story over again together. “Maybe something like ‘stroked’ instead. More intimate or whatever.” By this point, the giggling over every explicit part had stopped and the brunette was acting far more studiously. She had been a great help; Roxas was definitely going to owe her after this. He clicked to the inadequacy and replaced the word, and then sat back.

“Is it done?” he asked in a monotone, almost unwilling to stop working on it until the very moment he handed it in. To take this big of a risk would require perfection to pull off. Olette tapped here chin in thought before finally nodding.

“That’s at least as close to perfect as I can help you get,” she said brightly, laying a hand on his shoulder and squeezing faintly. “Now you just have to breathe and not freak out until you hand it in.” Roxas groaned, knowing that would be the worst part of the whole thing.

“Thanks for all the help,” he said gratefully as he stood to walk her out. “And if I lose my scholarship and drop out, it’s totally all your fault.” She laughed, pausing to give him a hug in the doorway.

“Yeah, well, then if you get laid instead, you’ll owe me for that as well.” Roxas pushed her gently out the door as her soft laughter filled the air. Like that would happen. Despite how...direct this story was, Roxas was painfully shy and awkward when it came to admitting his attraction to someone, and he definitely wouldn’t have the nerve to do so to his TA. The best he could hope for here was that Axel would be flattered rather than horrified and would bump up his grade. He sat anxiously in front of his computer again, scrolling up to the top of the document. He settled in to reread his work for the hundredth time, trying to spot any errors or areas he could improve upon.

——-

Roxas had his story printed out and laying on his desk throughout his last class, and spent the entire lecture staring at the mane of fiery red hair down in the front row. It was almost time now. The professor would dismiss them, Axel would head to his office, and Roxas would follow to hand in his story. He’d played the scenario over in his head all day; how he’d wait a few minutes to give the redhead a head start, how he’d drop the story with a thank you and escape before Axel could notice the content, how he’d-

“That’s a good stopping point. I think we can end things a few minutes early,” the professor announced cheerily from the floor, knocking Roxas out of his thoughts with a spike of adrenaline. As the class around him gathered their things up and the buzz of conversation began to fill the room, Roxas sat there, staring a hole through his paper. This was it. He would wait until the other students had mostly cleared out, giving his stupidly attractive TA time to beat him to the office all the way across the campus and-

“Hey Roxas. Want to walk with me to my office? I was hoping to talk with you.” Slowly, painfully slowly, Roxas turned his head and angled his face up towards the smooth, pleasant voice directed at him. Axel was looking at him expectantly, standing at the end of his row a few seats away from where Roxas was. Shit. The blonde scrambled to gather his things and stood quickly, earning a smile from the taller man.

“Sure, yeah,” Roxas stammered, wanting to kick himself as he let the TA lead him out of the room. They walked in silence until the heavy doors to the building were pushed open and they stepped into bright afternoon sunlight. Axel hummed contentedly as the crisp breeze tousled his bright locks before throwing Roxas a grin.

“Thanks. I wanted to let you know that you agreeing to let me get out of here early the other day really made a huge difference, and I appreciate it. A colleague and good friend in the music department had a showcase that started during my hours, and I managed to get there in time to catch the end of his bit. Meant a lot to him. It won’t affect my grading, but,” Axel paused as they continued their stroll towards the TA’s office, clearly considering his next words carefully, “I wanted you to know that what you did mattered to me.” Axel laughed brightly, holding a hand out towards the slightly stunned blonde walking beside him. “Now I’m ready to settle in to read and impartially grade your story. I hope you really went all in with this one.” Roxas choked and flushed scarlet, literally tripping over his own feet and almost falling down. As he righted himself, he saw the redhead’s confused and concerned expression and wished he had the ability to sink into the ground like a shadow and escape. The blonde stumbled back into step at Axel’s side and passed him the papers, trying to ignore the embarrassment burning his face. 

“Here,” Roxas murmured, and although the blonde wished as firmly and thoroughly as he was able to, Axel glanced down at the story. Roxas watched in agony as the taller man’s eyes skimmed over the front page before locking onto something and widening comically. Axel’s footsteps faltered to a halt as his other hand rose to steady the pages against the wind, and Roxas realized they were close enough to the building that he could make a hasty departure to avoid further embarrassment.

“Thanks for telling me all that, I hope it...uh...that it’s better than the first. Gotta be somewhere in a little bit, I’ll see you Monday!” Roxas spluttered frantically before spinning on his heel and walking away as quickly as he could without actually running away from the TA. That was mortifying. Roxas wanted to wither away to nothing and never face the world again, but since that wasn’t an option, he decided on the next best thing. The blonde pulled his phone out, hastily texting his friends to meet him at the bar to get hammered in hopes that he could forget about Axel and the whole ordeal in general.

——-

The weekend dragged to an end as slowly as it could, and Roxas spent the entirety of it agonizing over Axel and the story. Was he mad? Did he enjoy it enough to raise the grade? Was Roxas about to be kicked out of his program and lose his scholarship? 

Monday dawned and Roxas got through his classes in a distracted haze until he found himself seated in his creative writing lecture staring at the back of Axel’s head. Not once did the man turn his head or acknowledge Roxas in any way, and the shorter man wasn’t sure if that was a good sign or not. Time inched onward until finally, finally, the professor wrapped up for the day. People began milling around, and like on Friday, Roxas simply sat there. He was dreading having to go to his TA’s office to ask him personally about it. Of course, damn his luck, this wasn’t a course where grading was posted online for students to check up on. He was sure Axel’s email was somewhere on the syllabus; would it be better or worse to email him about the story? Roxas was so lost in his musing that he nearly leapt out of his skin when papers were abruptly dropped onto his desktop in front of him. His eyes traveled in shock from the large red ‘A’ scrawled across the top of the paper and to Axel, standing in the row in front of him from where he’d apparently reached over to return the pages.

“There are notes for you on the bottom of the last page, but I figured knowing that you saved your grade was the important part,” the redhead said with a soft smile. It took Roxas’s brain several seconds to catch up to what had just been said to him, and when he did...

“Oh my god, thank you!” Roxas gasped, snatching up the document and clutching it tightly in suddenly weak hands. Axel beamed and then gave him a quick wink.

“Thank YOU for providing me with some much improved reading material.” Roxas felt his face heating up, but Axel didn’t give him much time to become flustered. The taller man gave him another two-fingered salute before turning and heading away down the row. Roxas looked down at the paper in his hands before curiously turning to the last page, seeing handwriting in the fat red market immediately. Axel had written, ‘very good, but some inconsistencies with reality. See me after class to correct?’ Below that was listed a phone number.

In his haste to pull out his phone, Roxas almost dropped it, but quickly typed out the number and hit ‘call’. Axel was still in sight as he pulled out his own phone and held it to his ear.

“Hello?” Roxas heard him answer in that natural, deep purr, and he felt a grin break out on his lips.

“I was wondering if you had time to revisit my story this evening? Maybe over dinner or something?” He watched his TA turn at the doorway to lock eyes with him, a Cheshire Cat smile blooming on his face.

“I think I’m free. Dinner at my place?”

**Author's Note:**

> Like what you see here? I’ve got more!
> 
> Finished:  
> There’s An App For That  
> Into The Unknown  
> Discord Required  
> In progress:  
> Angel With A Shotgun  
> Got It Memorized?  
> A Pirate’s Life For Me  
> Reddit Nosleep Thread
> 
> Plus more to come! ❤️


End file.
